ANTI-GAY BILL MOVES FORWARD IN NIGERIA

While Uganda appears to be fast-tracking its dreaded Anti-Homosexuality Bill, Nigeria’s own anti-gay legislation is also one step closer to becoming law.

The Daily Nation reported on Wednesday that the Same Gender Marriage Prohibition Bill passed a second reading in the House of Representatives on Tuesday with a unanimous vote.

“It is alien to our society and culture and it must not be imported,” House majority leader Mulikat Adeola-Akande said in the debate about same-sex marriage. “Religion abhors it and our culture has no place for it,” she added.

The bill, which was slammed by the European Parliament in March, was previously passed by the Senate last year and will next go through a clause-by-clause review at a future date in the House of Representatives before being finally voted on.

If it becomes law, same-sex couples who attempt to marry face 10 years in jail. Anyone who is found guilty of ‘aiding or abetting’ the solemnisation of a same-sex marriage could receive up to 14 years in prison.

It also makes any members of the same sex showing affection in public liable for a 10 year prison sentence.

Current legislation already punishes homosexual acts in Nigeria with 14 years’ imprisonment, or death by stoning in northern regions.